Why is the Vatican silent on Pelosi’s Taiwan visit?
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Title: Why is the Vatican silent on Pelosi’s Taiwan visit?
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Why is the Vatican silent on Pelosi’s Taiwan visit?
No one expects the Holy See to speak even if the present imbroglio develops into a show of force
A US military aircraft with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on board prepares to land at Songshan Airport in Taipei on Aug. 2. (Photo: AFP)
As the US upped the ante against China by sending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei on Aug. 2, where will the Holy See, the only European nation to have diplomatic ties with the Chinese renegade state, stand?
The arrival of Pelosi, a long-time China critic, in Taiwan has given enough reasons for Beijing to retaliate by deploying warships near the median line, an unusual move seen as provocative. Taiwan has also pressed into service aircraft on standby to face China’s aggression.
The US, which is already engaged in a standoff with Russia over Ukraine, was not intimidated by Chinese saber-rattling over Pelosi’s visit. To provide security for the highest-ranking official to visit Taiwan in a quarter-century, the US deployed four warships, including an aircraft carrier, in waters east of the breakaway Chinese island.
By keeping the Taiwan issue boiling simultaneously with the flare-up in Eastern Europe, the US is getting ready to extend its theater of war to East Asia and, like Russia, China will not give up without a fight.
The Vatican has more stakes in China than in Taiwan as there are more than 12 million Catholics in China compared with 200,000 in Taiwan. Catholics in China already lack freedom of faith and the threat of harassment looms large over them if the Vatican crosses swords with the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
If China wants, it can cut the Vatican off from Catholics in China entirely by reviving the Patriotic Church, which became dormant after the secret pact with the Vatican.
“The Vatican has not made any diplomatically critical step against China since 2018, as if to protect the deal”
The Vatican sealed the secret deal with China in 2018 after four years of discussions, reportedly allowing the Vatican a final say in the appointment of bishops in China. The deal, which was originally valid for two years, was renewed in 2020 for another two years and it is set to expire in October unless renewed again.
The Vatican renewed the agreement last time defying the US. The then US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, was scolded by the Vatican for unnecessarily raking up the issue.
The only manifest achievement of the deal in the past four years was the appointment of six new bishops and the regularization of seven bishops, whom the Chinese government appointed without Vatican approval.
However, the Vatican has not made any diplomatically critical step against China since 2018, as if to protect the deal.
Going a step further, the Vatican also removed its official representatives in Taiwan, and an unofficial one in Hong Kong, early this year and has not appointed their replacements so far. It raised concern in diplomatic circles if the Vatican was ready to forgo links with Taiwan for building up its relations with China.
Critics of the pact, even within the Vatican and the European Churches, said the deal has not yielded desired results for the Vatican. But their grumblings find no headway in official quarters as Pope Francis himself is keen on fostering ties with China, which is the richest nation on earth in terms of purchasing power.
“The Church in Hong Kong knew the plan to impose a draconian Chinese law meant eventual suppression of religious freedom in the city”
In an interview with Reuters last month, Pope Francis himself said that the pact could be renewed in October.
The pope called the slow progress of the pact “the Chinese way,” because the Chinese have that sense of time that nobody can rush them. He also showered praise on Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state and the mastermind behind the pact, for taking the agreement to the next level.
This papal soft-corner for China kept the Vatican tight-lipped when the Beijing-controlled administration in Hong Kong crushed pro-democracy protests and arrested and jailed several including prominent Catholic figures like Jimmy Lai in 2020.
The Church in Hong Kong knew the plan to impose a draconian Chinese law meant eventual suppression of religious freedom in the city. The Vatican acted silently in 2019 and shipped to Rome archives related to its activities in mainland China and Hong Kong, reports show.
Monsignor Javier Herrera-Corona, the Vatican’s unofficial representative in Hong Kong, asked the city’s 50-odd Catholic missioners to abide by the new rule just before he moved out.
The Vatican’s self-imposed silence on the genocidal campaign against the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has already become the talk of the town since the US government officially recognized it as genocide.
The Vatican has rebuffed reports that the removal of its representatives from Taiwan and Hong Kong was part of silent preparations to re-open the Vatican’s embassy in Beijing. Officials like Monsignor Javier Herrera-Corona reiterate that the prime concern of the Sino-Vatican deal is pastoral and not diplomatic.
The Vatican is again silent on the Pelosi visit to Taiwan and no one expects it to break its silence. But will it make a move if the present imbroglio develops into a show of force, and avoidable violence? No one expects, again? Should that be the Catholic Church?
Given the dynamics of the Holy See’s China-oriented diplomatic trajectory, it seems the Vatican has abdicated the head of the Catholic Church’s duty and call to guide nations and communities, when they are driven solely by forces of market and politics, ignoring greater human wellbeing.
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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